Daily Financial News Analysis – 28th Sep’19 | PDF Download

Block Predatory Pricing

•  Brick-and-mortar retailers have urged the government.
• Curb the practice of e-tailers forging exclusive tie-ups with smartphone makers and offering lower prices.
•  Critical festive season is just around the corner.
• “predatory online pricing” death knell for offline sellers and lead to huge job losses. “More than 30,000 mobile phone retail outlets have been shut down in the past one year.
•  ” All India Mobile Retailers Association has shot off letters to the commerce ministry, the Competition Commission of India and the Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT).
•  Foreign direct investment (FDI) rules for the ecommerce segment.
• Aim: ensuring a better pricing balance between online and offline sellers
• Barred online marketplaces from signing exclusive deals for products on their platforms
• Also directed that a single vendor could sell a maximum of 25% of its inventory on an ecommerce platform.

RCEP updates

• India may cut or eliminate tariffs on 80% of products imported from China.
• India plans to cut duties on 86% of imports from Australia and New Zealand
• 90% for products coming in from Asean, Japan and South Korea.
• New Delhi had not made much headway with its proposal for strict rules of origin, to prevent Chinese goods from entering India through other RCEP member states.
• India had proposed that the last country from which a product is exported should do the most value addition with the help of indigenous inputs.
•  Auto-trigger mechanism will help India

US Medical Devices

•  India’s price control regime on medical devices. It is one of the issues that is holding back trade deal between the two countries.
•  India is considering a proposal that could enable American companies to produce medical devices here that would reduce prices. Stents and knee implants devices
• US is the largest exporter of medical devices to India, constituting one-fifth of the pie, followed by Germany, China, Singapore and Netherlands.
• The price control of medical devices so far has been beneficial to the patients.
• India is of the opinion that its move is to control unethical practices and trade distortion prevalent in the industry.

Firefighters on Bikes

• Referring to the devastating forest fire in the Amazon and recent mishap in Surat, PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister on Friday said fire safety is a matter of concern.
•  Speaking at the 15th Formation Day of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
• Mishra said the concept of ‘mobile fire stations’ with firefighters on bikes in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Guragon should be emulated to reduce response time in congested areas.

Settle All Vendor Bills

• Finance ministry has asked government departments to clear outstanding dues. suppliers and service providers: worth ₹20,000 crore
• Within the first week of October this year.
• REASON: to provide liquidity in the festival season.
•  It also called for investment plans of ministries over the next four quarters

 Nitin Gadkari on MSMEs

•  More micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) should get listed on the exchanges to fund growth and reduce the burden on the lending sector.
• Such a move would allow the companies to get funds to expand their business globally, bringing in more revenue for the country, while investors will get good returns on their investment.
•  The government aims to increase MSME sector’s contribution to the GDP to 50% in the next five years and increase its exports exponentially.
• To achieve these targets, the cost of capital, logistics and power must be brought down for the MSMEs, making them globally competitive.
• To ensure easy credit to the sector, developing a digital credit rating system is the need of the hour.

Fuel Prices

• Domestic rates of petrol and diesel have risen by ₹2-2.5 per litre in a fortnight since the drone attack on Saudi oil facilities sent international oil prices soaring.
•  Petrol had touched ₹80 a litre in Mumbai and ₹74.34/ litre in Delhi. The rates for diesel were ₹70.55/litre and ₹67.24/litre, respectively.

 Plastic Ban

• The industry believes Prime Minister Narendra Modi could announce a ban on single-use plastic materials on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary.
•  India’s food services delivery business, the fastest growing segment of the ₹4-lakhcrore food and beverages industry, faces higher operating costs and the likelihood of disruption as the country considers banning single-use plastic materials from next month.
• Aggarwal said that there must be viable alternatives to the costeffective material the industry has hitherto used to help drive an eatingout culture, particularly in urban India.
• Restaurant chains believe that existing alternatives to plastic are more expensive.
•  The curbs will likely cover all packaging materials, including bags, cups, containers and straws.
• Zomato said that it has been working with research-based startups and firms to introduce quality, ecofriendly packaging for restaurant partners.
• A Swiggy spokesperson said it has found viable alternatives, including bags, straws and cutlery, which the aggregator has made available to restaurants through its Packaging Assist venture.

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